936 FXUS66 KMFR 201048 AFDMFR Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Medford OR 348 AM PDT Sun May 20 2018 .SHORT TERM... Scattered showers continue this morning on the Eastside as this upper level energy lingers. We'll see this trough start to dig in more this morning. Convection is expected east of the Cascades and in Northern California again. Saturday night we saw around 20 - 30 lightning strikes, but we're expecting a bit more given this low coming in Sunday afternoon and evening is stronger. CAPE varies from 400-1000 J/kg depending what model you look at and bulk shear is around 25 to 30 knots. Not expecting anything severe to come out of that environment, but some stronger wind gusts are still possible in northern California. The digging low will eventually give way and wander south into southern California. We'll see subsiding air, so our CWA should dry out substantially into Monday. There is a slight chance for a storm or two in Modoc county. Tuesday is pretty interesting as models want to initiate some more moist convection in an environment with 10 knot 0 - 6 km shear. This basically means that any updraft that gets going should get knocked down fairly quickly. CAPE is also quite low only around 400- 600 j/kg. If we do see lightning, northern California is the most likely place Tuesday. High temperatures Tuesday should be in the upper 80's with 90's possible in the Northern California valleys west of the Cascades. Weak offshore flow develops and this is usually a sign of a decent to significant warm up. Temperatures will be around 10 to 15 degrees above average for late May. Finally, Wednesday is another interesting day as models are generating significant amounts of potential instability along mountainous terrain with 1000 j/kg to 2400 j/kg of CAPE. It's also interesting how there is yet again a complete lack of upper level flow with 0-6km shear only around 5 knots. It's still a little puzzling where the models are coming up with significant more moisture compared to Tuesday. The only explanation that we can think of right now is the low coming up from southern California is adding a little more moisture to the equation in addition to the stronger upper level divergence as the two lows approach from the Pacific. Both the ECMWF and GFS are pretty bullish with moist convection Wednesday afternoon and evening. This seems reasonable, but storms should be short lived yet again because of the complete lack of shear. -Smith .LONG TERM Wednesday through Saturday... /Issued 246 PM PDT Sat May 19 2018/ There is a high degree of uncertainty in the extended forecast. It all depends on where a persistent cutoff low sets up and the models disagree on this point. However, the 00Z GFS and EC ensembles help to clarify this issue. The 19/00Z GFS/EC solutions actually agreed fairly well with the position of the cutoff low, at least in the Wednesday/Thursday time frame. The 19/06Z GFS had a very different solution. Now the 19/12Z GFS is trending back to the EC position. Also, the EC ensemble members are fairly tightly bunched with respect to the position of the cutoff while the GFS shows a wide range. Given all this, have decided to favor the EC solution due to greater consistency, both run-to-run and within the same run. The EC solution keeps the cutoff closer to the Medford CWA and this means a forecast of showers and thunderstorms through the extended period. On Wednesday, the cutoff will be near 40N 135W with south to southwest flow aloft over the forecast area. The cutoff will move east-southeast to around 37N 130W, and the flow aloft will come around to southeast to south. On Friday morning, the low will be just off the central California coast with stronger southeast flow aloft over the Medford CWA. Then the low will move very slowly east to be over central California Sunday morning. By this time the flow aloft over the Medford CWA will be easterly. This pattern will advect a steady flow of moisture into the area through the extended period. Precipitable water values are not available from the EC model, but the GFS shows quite a bit of moisture Wednesday into Thursday...1.00 to 1.25 inches over the west side and 0.75 to 1.00 inches over the east side. Friday is about 0.25 inches drier, but the higher values return Saturday. As the low moves closer, cooling aloft will enhance the convective environment. The EC 850mb lifted indices lack resolution, but they still depict significant lifting over from the Siskiyous south and Cascades east, especially in the afternoons and evening. The surface based lifted indices show a similar pattern with instability spreading to the west side near the Cascades in the afternoons and evenings. If this forecast pans out, it's going to be pretty busy around here for the second half of the week. Oh yeah, temperatures. It's going to be warm Wednesday, getting warmer through Friday. Inland Wednesday highs will be 5-10 degrees above normal, rising to around 10 degrees above normal Friday. Saturday will be near 5 degrees cooler. Along the coast, highs will be near normal through the extended period. -Stockton && .AVIATION...20/00Z TAF CYCLE...Marine stratus covers virtually all of the coastal waters and the coast with MVFR ceilings. Expect marine stratus and MVFR ceilings to return to KRBG after midnight tonight. Inland, VFR prevails for the next 24 hours. However, a trough will bring instability to the Cascades and eastward with isolated showers and thunderstorms until early this evening. This could lead to temporary MVFR and gusty and erratic winds. -Bunnag && .MARINE...Updated 200 AM PDT Sunday 20 May 2018...Light seas and moderate northerly winds will persist through this morning. North winds increase this afternoon, leading to steep wind driven seas. Winds will be strongest south of Cape Blanco and seas will be steepest south of Gold Beach. Winds and seas peak Monday afternoon as the thermal trough peaks in strength, gradually subsiding late Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday. -Firmin && .MFR WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... OR...None. CA...None. Pacific Coastal Waters...Small Craft Advisory from 11 AM this morning to 5 PM PDT Tuesday for PZZ356-376. Small Craft Advisory for hazardous seas from 11 AM this morning to 5 PM PDT Tuesday for PZZ350-356-370-376. $$ Smith/Firmin/Stockton